Now it’s your turn to chat with Randal Keynes. Join the conversation — it’s just to the right.

* Did Keynes’s famous pedigree prompt his decision to become a conservation biologist?
* What is it like for Keynes to see the species Darwin studied — in the Galapagos, for instance — threatened with extinction?
* Have you seen the movie Creation? Did it change your view of Darwin as a man?

Comments

I bet the movie does not show the point at which Charles Darewn reads a letter from Patrick Matthew pointing out that he published the idea of natural selection in 1831,i.e before Darwin even voyaged on the Beagle.To his credit Darwin admitted that Matthew got there before him and later acknowledged the fact that William Charles Wells beat them both(search Google for “wainwrightscience for more detials).
Prof.Milton Wainwright

Evolutionary ideas certainly predate Darwin, even as far back as ancient Greece. But they were dismissed or laughed at until Darwin. Why? Because he was the first one to propose a mechanism for it – natural selection. Until then, this was a theological/philosophical armchair idea. Darwin made the first truly scientific case for it. Which explains why it immediately gained traction – “Why didn’t I think of this”, Huxley supposedly said after reading the Origin. And all of them have read Chambers and Lamarck and others before, without being persuaded in the least. Darwin made evolution persuasive.